I'm sure you're correct that 2002 marked a change of some kind (enforcement perhaps?) - but I seem to recall that there was official guidance that the IDP should only be used for one year as far back as the 80s - 90s. I remember jumping through all the hoops to get a Japanese license back then for this reason.

Almost certainly it was just the national police getting around to enforcing things. For their part, they did spend a *lot* of time on the subject of Jpn nationals using the loophole in then-current practice. What caused so many problems for the first 1-2 months was that each prefecture's License Office interpreted the "new" rules differently.

Well if I can't get my license translated more or less immediately, at least by the afternoon, I will probably just have to swallow the cost of the rental. There was nobody at JR Hokkaido Rent-A-Car when I arrived at Chitose airport tonight and I tried to explain the situation over the phone on the courtesy phone. They seemed to understand that I be a good deal later than planned on Monday and it appeared to be not a problem.

A bit of feedback then. I had some help from the place I was staying at in Sapporo, who called the car rental company and explained why I would be late for pick up.

The JAF place was an easy subway ride out to Fukuzumi plus 5 minutes walk. They translated the license in 40 minutes, no problem that it was issued on 15th October. I took the Airport Liner, which happened to run along the same road, out to the airport to pick up from JR Hokkaido Rent-A-Car (stopped for some ramen in the terminal first). Their office is quite a long way off site. The bureaucracy would have been daunting for the uninitiated, but a lot of it was common sense. Other things, like the NOC, are unfamiliar to us from the west. However, no problems with them accepting that my credit card offers full protection (Lufthansa Miles & More credit card).

I went over the vehicle in great detail with the guy, noting down little scratches and marks, with him saying no problem no problem all the time. I took detailed time stamped photos of everything, though. And off I went.

Thanks for updating us. Drive safely.

The trip has been amazing. We followed route 276 from Tomakomai through to Kutchan, to get to the Hilton at Niseko. The next day we completed 276.to the coast at Iwanai, and followed 229 down the coast. The scenery is austere, the coast bleak, the townships empty, and a nasty wind picked up, blowing in from the west bringing tree branches down, along with heavy rain.

The following day we drove to Akan National Park, to the onsen of Teshigaka. It blew me away how long it took to get there and we rolled in to the Minshuku at about 8pm and crashed out on a tatami mat. The route involved heading due East along expressway E38, the toll of which was really expensive: ¥4,880. The last section, in the dark in Akan NP, was a bit scary because there were so many wild animals, large and small, caught in the glare of the headlights. If I had gone faster and one or some of them had leapt in front of us, it could have been fatal.

I would really avoid driving in the wilds after dark if possible and don't underestimate the distances and driving conditions like I did. Driving around the volcanic sights of Akan National Park, on the other hand, has been wonderful. There's no other way to do it.

+1 I find Google Maps JP drive time estimates to be a little aggressive. Out of three car rentals on my last trip, two navi estimates were a little too long. Actual drive time going speed of traffic along the San'in coast where "expressways" are sometimes regular one lane bi-directional country roads with stop lights (and few bypass lanes) and speeding locals was somewhere between the two.

The JapanTravel app by Navitime can be a second source to get drive time estimates even though it won't show you the actual directions for free.

Hey I did sort of the same drive but in reverse. It sure is a long drive. I went from Kushiro to Niseko Hilton. I can't drive for more than 60-90min nonstop without taking a break. Luckily they have lots of SA/PA's with vending machines and sometimes konbini.

What kind of animals? I drove in dark from Memanbetsu to Shari this past summer. Didn't notice any animals, although I was also tired so it's possible I was just oblivious. I did see grizzlies roadside the next day in broad daylight.

Brown bears?

Yes, brown bears. It had a hump on the neck (black bears don't have that).

We saw foxes, lots of deer and a few wildcats. Luckily nothing leapt out in front of me.
For the trip back to Chitose I drove the full length of Japan national route 241 all the way from Teshikaga to Obihiro (163km), where we found an amazing ramen place. From there it was a long but efficient haul west along 38 and 274, with a few mountain stretches with endless tunnels. A lot of it was like driving through Maine or New Hampshire.

oh wow you drove across Hokkaido and back? That's a lot of driving. I flew over to Memanbetsu then drove across one way, flying out of CTS. That was more than long enough for me.
I'm glad your trip went well.
Btw those weren't wildcats you saw. Not sure what you saw, but no wildcats exist on any of the four main islands.

I wonder if what I saw was this:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2...s-ghost-wolves

My passengers said there were a lot more animals than I actually saw. Next time I would go out of my way to avoid driving in the dark.

I have a couple of takeaways from this trip, though. As I was given an automatic car, and driving there was a bit like east coast USA, I had to watch to not pull out of parking lots on to the wrong side of the road! Really, driving there is not all that difficult, but the speed limits were so absurdly low - long stretches of 50kph in forested sections of road (wild animals), urban speed limits that seemed to go on forever, and at 70kph limit on most of the expressway E38 across the island. In the end everyone was just whizzing past me, so I matched my speed to that of the traffic around me. But that meant we were doing 100-110 in a 70kph limit on that E38 (limits are 80kph on the one or two stretches that are dualled). I sure hope I didn't pick up any speed cameras there.

One very strange electronic sign warned of the danger of lightning, which was totally plausible given the weather conditions while there. But one of my passengers said that the "lightning" referred to the flash from speed cameras, so I think I didn't pick one of those up. And how does it work when you pay the toll for the E38, once you've sped down the highway at a speed that was obviously too fast given the time of entry on the toll ticket?

Signposts are a bit like in the US and Australia. However, stop signs are give way/yield signs coloured red, which were not too difficult to spot. What really got me were the rail level crossings, where you are actually supposed to do a full stop. One night, in Teshikaga over in Akan National Park, I didn't see the level crossing and simply drove across it. I would have seen the lights of a train and heard it (I had the window open), but that taught me to be really careful.

Actually, Japanese Brown Bears are the same species as Grizzlies.... just a different sub-species.

Hi,

In spring, with my wife, we'll visit Japan (first time there).

This will include a road trip from Fukuoka (4th of April) to Kyoto (12th of April):

See picture 01



Considering that dropping-off the car in another place is very expensive (can be up to >40% of total price on the simulation I did), I spend hours to try to compare all options (thanks to this tread):

See picture 02



I spent hours, but still lost => would appreciate your help.

What I'm looking for:

• Pick-up: Fukuoka airport 4th of April 2020 (as internal flight plan are not opened yet, I don't know when we will land, but probably around 5PM)
• Drop-off: Kyoto (our hotel is located near the main station) 12th of April
• We will be two (I'm the only driver) with 2 suitcases => don't need a huge car, but as we will drive ~1'000 km, would need something quite comfortable.
• I would like full insurance

A little bit in advance, wish you all the best for the New Year



Fab



NB: Was not able to attach the pictures (error message " You are not allowed to post URLs until you have at least 5 posts")